Teatime of the Living Dead
by Jack Hawksmoor
Summary: A post Journey's End Doctor/Rose rollicking adventure. I couldn't find one, so I wrote one. Thrills, chills, and intermittent snogging ahead.
1. Chapter 1

Teatime of the Living Dead

ch1

It was her mum that doomed them, really.

She and the Doctor (she supposed it was all right to call him that) were fine with walking. The Doctor might have been brand new but he had been built for running, just like Rose, and the slow pace they were setting was as easy as breathing for two people way too comfortable with sprinting for their lives.

Jackie Tyler, however, wasn't having any of it. She started trying to flag down cars, waving her hands and hopping around. Rose caught the Doctor smothering a snicker and gave him an elbow in the ribs. He grinned at her cheekily, his hair mussing in the wind, and Rose thought for a moment how massively unfair it was to be manhandled so...expertly.

The other Doctor had to have known she wouldn't be able to resist him. He was the Doctor, of course she couldn't resist him. Arrogant prat. Rose stuffed her hands in her pockets, watching her mother give a passing car a glare, and thought seriously of disliking the man (Time Lord...whatever) walking beside her. It would serve him right. Granted, he wasn't the Time Lord she was annoyed with, but he did happen to look just like him, which was enough to be going on with. Rose tried on a scowl, just to see how it felt on her face. For a moment, she thought of maybe hoping the other Doctor (Proper Doctor? Doctor One?) would be miserable and wretched without her. Gnashing of teeth and all that.

Then the Doctor beside her held out his hand for her to hold, wiggling his fingers with light in his eyes. Rose, with the thought of girlish vengeance fresh in her mind, hesitated a moment. It hurt him immediately; She could tell by how his face went carefully blank and he looked away from her as if he'd never heard of hand holding. Rose bit her lip, feeling like a heel, and bumped him lightly with her shoulder, her hand snaking out to curl around his.

The Doctor looked at her with a sort of pleased and giddy expression on his face. His eyes crinkled with a smile before it hit his mouth, and he was suddenly effusive, swinging her arm and skipping along.

Pushover, Rose thought to herself with a sigh and a smile. She was a right pushover...

"Ah, here we are," the Doctor crowed as a dirty sedan swerved to a halt in front of them. "Lovel-" He stopped mid-word, his feet halting. Rose glanced up at him, startled.

"Oh, you lovely man," her mother was cooing through the open passenger side window. "Thank you!"

"Doctor?" Rose prompted, hanging back. She recognized the look on his face. The Doctor stared at the car in the manner of a man prodding a sore tooth, and his eyes had gone a bit spooky. She hadn't known he could still do that, what with the human bit in him. It was probably mad, considering where that look had always led her, but she found the sight of it weirdly reassuring.

"Jackie," the Doctor said with a warning in his voice. He lifted his free hand and beckoned to her. "Come away."

Her Mum didn't react. She was in the middle of chatting up the driver, though, and it was conceivable she'd just missed it. Then she turned back and rolled her eyes at him, and Rose put that little theory to bed.

"Come on, then, he speaks English." Jackie opened the car door.

"Mum," Rose said, glancing at the Doctor's expression. Jackie leaned on the door and pulled a face.

"Look, I'm not walking to town, and you're not telling me he's an alien." She jerked her head in the driver's direction. "That's too many aliens in one car," she added firmly, and hopped in.

"Right," the Doctor said tightly, his eyes strange and dark. He gave Rose a very false smile. "Shall we?" he said brightly.

Rose moved when he tugged at her hand, following him around one side of the car and clinging to his fingers tightly. When he opened the door for her she planted herself in front of it and gave him a searching look.

The Doctor gazed down at her and shook his head minutely, for a moment letting frustration flicker across his face. He glanced over her shoulder at the driver, looking...unsatisfied.

Nothing concrete, then. Just standard spooky Time Lord premonition stuff. Rose bit her lip and got into the car. She hated the vague premonitions of doom the worst. Not least of all because he was usually so right about it.

Of course, given the Doctor's lifestyle, he could get a fortune cookie every day that said 'explosions in your future' and make the restaurant that sold them a mint for accuracy in predictions.

"Thanks for the ride," Rose told the driver, interrupting her Mum as the Doctor scooted in after her.

"And this is my daughter, Rose," her Mum said, "and the Doctor."

"Hello!" the Doctor said, cheerfully enough.

The man, who was grizzled and gray, smiled at Rose and then looked a bit surprised.

"Oh," he said in a heavy accent, glancing at her Mum. "Are you sick?"

"Sick of walking," Jackie said with a sweet smile, and Rose shook her head a bit. She shared an amused look with the Doctor. Even happily married in this world, her mum was still a horrible flirt.

Rose listened quietly to her mother chatter on, glancing over at the Time Lord (was he still one?) sitting beside her. She tried to pretend it wasn't deeply weird even though it was.

Really, deeply weird. The hand she was holding was the one he'd got chopped off, and kept in a jar of all things. He grew out of that hand...and he was looking at her now as if he could see what she was thinking.

Rose wouldn't put it past him.

"Still a bit creeped out by the hand thing," Rose said sheepishly, glancing up at her Mum and keeping her voice down. This was not a conversation she wanted her mother included in. The Doctor cracked a grin and squeezed her fingers.

"Love that hand," he said, and as he looked at her his smile got warmer and gentler, as if he was thinking about what else he loved. The expression made Rose go over a bit tingly, and she grinned like an idiot.

"But really," she said, her smile fading but the affection still going strong, "will you be okay?"

The Doctor gave her a bit of a frown and shook his head as if he wasn't following her. Rose tilted her head sympathetically.

"No TARDIS," she prompted. The Doctor's face cleared and he looked at her as if she was the most brilliant thing he'd ever seen. Considering some of the things he'd seen, Rose figured she was allowed to get a bit flustered at the expression. He let out a breath as if she'd just flummoxed him, and reached over to touch her cheek.

"Rose Tyler," he said softly, impressed. Rose had no idea what for. He shook his head a little. "After all that, you're worried if I'm all right."

Rose shrugged, and the Doctor gave her a look that made her think he'd like to kiss her again.

"Yes," he said, answering her question instead. He opened his mouth as if he was going to toss the question back at her, so she spoke quickly.

"And the other Doctor?" she asked. "Will he be all right?" The expression on his face changed very quickly, and she didn't like it one bit. He lied like a pro, but she'd known him too long to buy it anymore.

"Oh, well," the Doctor began with patently false assurance, and took a breath, probably about to say something about the other Doctor having all of time and space. Or worse, that he was always all right...

"Doctor," Rose said sharply, staring at him. The message was very clear. She was not accepting any of his rubbish this afternoon. Doctor's face fell, and he looked at her with blank eyes that always meant bad things.

"No," he said softly, and looked away from her. For a moment they sat there in silence together. Together. Rose suddenly was a lot less annoyed with the other Doctor, and a lot more sorry for him.

"He's got Donna," Rose said, and was surprised that her voice was thick. "She won't let him mope. He wouldn't dare." She smiled a little at that, at the picture in her head of Donna just laying into him. She reminded Rose a bit of her Mum, actually. Not that she would ever, EVER tell the Doctor that...

Then she caught a glimpse of the Doctor's face out of the corner of her eye and froze.

"What?" she asked, appalled. The Doctor hesitated, his eyes flicking up to gage her expression. Rose's eyes widened in alarm. He turned in his seat so he was facing her, and she mirrored him. He ran his thumb over the back of her hand, looking down at it for a moment.

"Rose," he said, as if he would rather do almost anything than tell her what he was about to tell her, "Donna has all the knowledge of a Time Lord packed into her head. That's never happened before," he said patiently, "for a reason." He shook his head slightly, his eyes searching her face. "It's too much. She'll burn up."

Rose felt her heart react to that as if someone had poked it with a stick. _You're gonna burn..._

"You're telling me she's gonna die?" Rose said incredulously. The Doctor's eyes were grim.

"Not if I take it away. Every thought, every memory she has of me, of the TARDIS, time travel... everything she's seen has to go." The Doctor continued, sounding heartsick. "Because if she remembers, she'll die."

Rose stared at him in horror.

"You're going to go into her head and take her memories away," she said, appalled. She thought the Doctor might have flinched a little. It was hard to tell. Her eyes were full of tears.

"Yeah." The Doctor's voice was rough.

"But she was brilliant," Rose breathed, blinking a tear down her cheek. The Doctor nodded mutely, dry-eyed and looking wretched. Tightly closed up and absolutely miserable.

"And what's the matter with you, then?" her Mum asked, pausing in her conversation with the driver, glancing back and catching the look on the Doctor's face. She looked over at Rose, and her manner changed instantly.

"What's wrong, sweetheart?" she asked gently, looking alarmed. Rose shook her head and wiped at her face.

"It's nothing...just, a friend of ours, in the other universe. She got hurt," Rose said, making herself sound as if it was something minor.

"Oh, that's a shame. She going to be all right?" her Mum asked.

"Yep," the Doctor cut in. He gave her Mum a fake, tight smile. "She'll be fine. She's safe at home by now." Rose's heart gave a lurch and she reached over and gave him a hug, not caring if her Mum rolled her eyes. Her mother had already turned back around, though, and missed it.

"Well, that's a relief," her mother said, as Rose buried her face in the Doctor's shoulder. He smelled exactly the same. His arms around her felt the same, too. His heart sounded odd, though. Pounding along like that, all on its own. Sounded a bit fragile, and she didn't care for that. She squirmed a little against him, and pressed tight. She could tell he was looking at her strangely but she stayed quiet, listening.

There it was. Two heartbeats. Funny that it was harder to hear her own. Beating out a samba together, she thought and smiled a bit.

"Oh!" the Doctor said, catching on. "Oh, now, I like that." He relaxed against her, looking unreasonably happy. He had to lean back slightly to look down at her face. "The one heart's still a bit weird," he said confidentially, scrunching up his face.

Rose laughed at him.

"Well, we'll just have to go around like this everywhere, then," she said, grinning. The Doctor looked suddenly doubtful.

"All right," he said, hugging her tightly to him with one arm as if getting used to the idea. He jerked his head toward the front seat, mischief in his eyes. "But your mother's going to be-"

"Going to be what?" her Mum said sharply. Then, more softly with a hint of amusement, "I'm not going to be able to turn my back for a second on you two, will I?"

"Oh, we've stopped," Rose said in surprise, pushing away from the Doctor a bit and looking around. They'd pulled into a petrol station.

"Not that you'd notice," her mother scolded. "He's gone in to see if there's a phone, the sweetheart. Can you imagine, not having a mobile in today's day and age?"

"Maybe he likes the peace and quiet," the Doctor murmured.

"Don't you start," her Mum said. She put an arm on the back of her seat. "I suppose when we get home you'll be staying with us. God knows we can afford it...speak up, then!" her Mum urged obliviously.

The Doctor had frozen for a moment in entirely uncharacteristic indecision.

"Mum!" Rose said sharply, rescuing him.

"What?" she asked, turning to her daughter. "He can't be running about the universe now. Fixing things he's already cocked up. He's got to live it once through just like the rest of us."

"Mum," Rose groaned, "it doesn't work like that. You can't go back on your own personal time line, you'd cause a paradox and destabilize your entire..." Rose glanced over at the Doctor, remembering who she was with. He was beaming at her, his mouth holding back a smile that was already shining from his eyes. He made a small encouraging noise. "...causal, ah, nexus," Rose finished, squirming a little in her seat. She hoped she wasn't blushing.

The Doctor grinned like the dawn breaking.

"Listen to you," he said delightedly. Rose bumped him with her elbow, smiling despite herself.

"Shut up," she said, ducking her head.

"You see that?" her Mum said flatly, looking at the Doctor and nodding her head at Rose. "That's your fault. I can't understand a thing she says half the time, these days."

The car door opened then, effectively ending the conversation.

"Today you have no luck," said their good Samaritan, sliding back in.

"What, no phone?" the Doctor asked, surprised. "No phone, in a petrol station?" He frowned skeptically. "Seems a bit unlikely."

"He says the power has been out for hours." The driver shrugged, and started the car. "There is a town along this road, not far. There is a hotel, an inn, if you need to call."

The Doctor got very tense and quiet. Rose glanced at the back of the driver's head and then leaned over, her hair falling over her face, keeping her voice low.

"Havin' the power out shouldn't do anything to the phones," she said very softly, suspicious. It wasn't really a question, it was more like clarifying their situation, and the Doctor leaned in, scratching the side of his head to hide his mouth from being seen by anyone in the front peering into the mirror at them.

"No, it shouldn't," he said faintly, a warning in his eyes. Rose smiled in a cheerful fashion that didn't reach her eyes, and the Doctor squeezed her hand once in reassurance.

The more things change, the more they stay the same, Rose thought suddenly, with a swell of amusement. She caught the Doctor eying her, looking a bit concerned. She tucked some stray hair behind her ear.

"Like old times," she said, smothering a smile, feeling slightly mad. The Doctor stared at her a moment and then flashed her that high-wattage grin of his.

"Yeah," he agreed, sounding delighted.

Well. At least they were mad together...

"So, tell me--I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name," the Doctor began in a friendly voice, leaning forward between the seats to talk to the driver.

"Too busy snogging my daughter," Jackie muttered. Rose frowned. They hadn't been (well, on the beach, sure, but not in the car...).

"Now," the Doctor corrected sharply, "To be fair, she snogged me."

Rose choked on a laugh. She couldn't really argue with that. On the beach, she'd definitely started the snogging. The driver snorted.

"But, as I was saying, I haven't been properly introduced," The Doctor said smoothly, in that marvelous tone of voice that had a tendency to just rollercoaster over everyone's common sense and get people to do the most outrageous things simply because he said so.

"Jarno," the driver replied, still chuckling. "And you are the Doctor?"

"That's me," the Doctor said pleasantly. "And where are you from, Jarno?" Rose watched as he pulled a sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and stealthily started to scan the driver, holding it behind the seat. Rose's eyes widened as she saw the screwdriver, and she actually opened her mouth, half ready to ask him if he'd nicked it. The Doctor caught her eye with a warning look and she stopped herself.

"I'm from Finland," Jarno said. "A town called Seinajoki."

"Ooh, you're a long way from home," the Doctor commented.

"Do you hear something buzzing?" Jarno asked, frowning. The Doctor flicked the screwdriver off and had it back in his pocket in a flash.

"I don't hear anything," Rose offered. "What brings you to Norway?" Jarno looked at her in the mirror.

"My sister, she lives not far from here. Thirty, thirty-five miles away," Jarno explained.

"That's wonderful of you, to come all this way for a visit," her Mum said sweetly.

"Oh, look. Are we here?" the Doctor said suddenly. They'd been passing houses here and there and were now coming up on a funny looking town. The buildings were something like row houses, shoved together tightly. Clusters of them would share a roof line, then break away and leave one house standing alone. They were perfectly square with little triangle roofs capped on top. Like life-size doll houses, nearly. Three or four stories, close as Rose could tell, and most of them had shops on the street level.

"Yes, there should be a hotel here on the left," Jarno said.

Rose frowned with a ripple of unease. The streets were totally empty. There wasn't a single person about. No one getting out of their cars, no one looking into the little shops. They passed a car that had been left by the side of the road with the door open, still running.

"Doctor," she said in warning, looking back at it as they passed.

"I know," he murmured, giving her shoulder a squeeze.

"It looks deserted," he said, louder.

"It is Sunday, but...it does seem quiet, yes," the driver said with curiosity. He braked in front of one of the houses standing alone. There was a sign in front that she couldn't read. "Your stop," Jarno announced.

"Oh, lovely," her Mum sighed. "I could do with a bite." She turned to the driver. "Come in and have something with us, won't you? It's the least I can do."

"I suppose..." Jarno began hesitantly.

"That's settled," her Mum said, giving his arm a pat. "I'll just run in, shall I? You can park the car. Coming, Rose?"

Her Mum hopped out and made for the front door, pleased as punch.

"Yeah," Rose said slowly, getting out of the car a lot more reluctantly than her mother had. She looked over the roof of the car and saw that the Doctor had frozen in place. She went around to him quickly, shutting the door after her.

He was wide-eyed and still, staring out at the deserted street.

"Can you smell it?" he asked her. Rose frowned and sniffed. She noticed another car down the road a little way with its door open and the lights on, and got a chill.

"I don't smell anything. What is it?" she prodded. The Doctor narrowed his eyes.

"Trouble," he said.

Behind them, there was a sudden hollow thud and Jarno started to bellow in fear. Rose and the Doctor whipped around to see someone (something?) beating on the windshield of the car. It lifted a hand, brought it down and cracked the glass like it was breaking a toy.

From the front porch of the hotel, her mother shrieked.

Jarno put his foot on the gas and jerked the wheel, screeching off down the street. The man (thing?) did not dislodge and fall away for at least a block. Jarno did not stop the car.

After a moment, the thing crumpled in the road staggered to its feet. It started to stumble back towards them. It was person-shaped, but...there was something in the quality of the movement that scratched at the back of her mind, lifting all the hairs on her arms.

"What...what is it?" Rose asked, realizing that the Doctor had put himself between the creature and her.

Her Mum, who had been pounding on the door for someone to let them in, suddenly yelled out indignantly.

"What! Let go-" Rose looked to see several pairs of hands dragging her mother inside the building.

"Mum!" she shouted, ducking around the Doctor and tearing up the steps. They'd slammed the door, taking her mother, and the sound echoed down the street like a gunshot.

"Rose!" the Doctor cried from behind her, though she couldn't think why. She'd just lifted her hand to beat on the closed door when she saw, out of the corner of her eye...something moving in the bushes. Not two feet from her. There was something in the bushes...

Rose felt a hand snake around her waist, and the Doctor jerked her back just as a flailing white hand reached out from the greenery to snatch at the air where she'd been standing. The Doctor's one heart was pounding a staccato beat against her back as the thing stepped forward out of the shadows.

It was a person. It...had been a person. The Doctor pulled her down the steps as she gaped at it. It moaned, faintly, eerily, and staggered after them, staring at them with dead eyes. There was all this greenish...stuff clinging to its skin. Mold or fungus...rot.

"That's not," Rose said faintly, and saw with rising alarm two more stumbling out from behind the building. She lifted a hand and pointed, turning to look at the Doctor's face. "They can't be..." Zombies? Couldn't possibly be.

"Yeah," the Doctor said tightly, his head swiveling around. Rose turned to look and saw another one, stumbling in at them from the side. She felt his hand dart down and grip hers, hard, and she knew what that meant. "Run!" the Doctor urged, and they took off together down the empty street, a growing horde of impossible monsters staggering after them.

* * *

_Author's Note:_

_My first non-drabble Doctor Who. So, I'm pimping for a beta. Anyone?_


	2. Chapter 2

Teatime of the Living Dead

Ch 2

"It can't be the Gelf," Rose said, panting as they sprinted off down the street, monsters in pursuit. "Torchwood has sensors and things on the rift now."

"It's not the Ge-oh!" The Doctor came up short, and Rose bumped into him. More of the things melted out of the shadows and from behind the cars in front of them. He tugged her toward an alley off to the right and they ran down it, only to stop again, faced with another shambling pack of them. "Ah," the Doctor said, looking back the way they'd come. Rose's followed his gaze and her heart sank. They were trapped. The Doctor moved swiftly, pushing Rose behind him, up against the building. They were caught at a stretch of wall with only one small window behind them, rather high up.

The Doctor held out a hand in a 'stop' gesture.

"Now," he said reasonably, looking back and forth at the approaching creatures, "I just think I should warn you, I'm not at all tasty. I have it on good authority, Time Lords-" the Doctor shook his head, making a face, "-horrible, nasty stuff."

Rose, rather squished up against the brick, went up on tiptoe and spoke into his ear.

"One heart, remember?" she prompted. The Doctor smiled, humorless and tight.

"Yes, thank you Rose, quite right." He turned back to the slowly shuffling mob of creatures. "Not completely Time Lord, my mistake," he said cheerily. "And this girl, here? Time traveler. Terrible aftertaste." Rose heard a kernel of alarm buried in his voice that was a dead giveaway that things were going very badly.

The creatures continued to stumble toward her and the Doctor. The buildings were built long, like row houses. There was a reasonable amount of distance between them and the monsters, enough time for someone to think of something clever. Preferably sooner rather than later. One of the things moaned in a guttural way that Rose had heard in half a dozen horror movies, and she clamped down on the Doctor's arm, hard.

She was not going to think about what usually happened to young blond girls in movies like that. It usually involved a lot of screaming for a short while.

"Okay," Rose said, looking around for anything she might use to improve the situation a bit. She spotted a likely-looking rock and snatched it up. Rose hefted it for a moment, and then chucked it at the little window. The glass shattered impressively.

"If you can lift me up there, I'll pull you up after," Rose said quickly, standing underneath the jagged hole she'd made. She'd probably cut herself up getting through, but given the alternative...

"I've a better idea," the Doctor said, sounding delighted. Rose looked at him over her shoulder, frowning. He was peering up at the narrow gap between the two roofs over their heads.

"What?"

The Doctor drew himself up to his full height and extended his arm in a dramatic little flourish. He looked rather silly, until a rope ladder dropped down from above, as if he'd conjured it. Rose gaped at it, then looked up.

"Haste!(1)" called a masculine voice from the roof. Rose lowered her eyes and stared at the Doctor for an instant, and then scrambled for the ladder, grinning.

"Oh, you _are_ good," she said in delight. The Doctor gave her a wink and a click of his tongue, and then had to duck and scurry rapidly up the ladder after her as the monsters closed in. Rose aimed a careful kick down at a reaching hand that got a little too close to him, and a moment later they were hanging safely out of reach.

The Doctor looked down at the things below them and then back up at her. He was hanging off to one side, his arms tangled up with hers. Rose started grinning at him at almost the exact same moment he started grinning at her.

"Zombies," Rose said, shaking her head. Sometimes their luck was way past unlikely, moving right along into impossible.

"Yeah," the Doctor said with a disbelieving laugh in his voice. His eyes flashed merrily. "Never a dull moment..."

A human hand extended through the gap between the roofs above them, and Rose reached out and took it, letting herself be pulled up. The hand was attached to an extremely strong looking middle-aged man. If he didn't work with his hands she would be surprised. Maybe a fisherman, or a dock worker. Something physical.

"Thank you," she said immediately, giving him a good solid hug. He reacted like someone who didn't get hugged all that often, stiffening up as if he didn't know what to do. Rose pulled back and heard a little noise, like someone clearing their throat. She stepped away from the uncomfortable man and turned to see a middle-aged blond woman who looked a bit annoyed. Behind her was a boy that shared a resemblance to both of them.

Not often hugged, or married, she thought with a wince. There were bundles of things scattered around that the family had obviously dragged up onto the roof. They'd thought to grab a few crates of fruit, some water, several bags of odds and ends. Rose thought she saw a radio off to the side, as well.

Smart people, Rose realized.

"British?" the woman asked, and to her credit, she didn't sound overly hostile.

"Oh, brilliant!" came the Doctor's voice behind her, and she looked to see him giving the large man a hug as well. Rose smiled warmly at the Doctor's familiar exuberance. He was so like what she remembered him to be, it was strange to think that he wasn't the same man. Or, not entirely the same. She wasn't quite sure yet how she ought to think about it.

The Doctor broke away, leaving the large man looking startled and entirely caught off guard. The Doctor took two steps and then he had her in his arms as if it was the most natural thing in the world to do. Rose returned the embrace tightly, approving. The world would be a better place with more hugging, she decided. Lots of worlds would be better places.

"You all right?" he asked softly, rubbing at her shoulders. Rose nodded, pushing hair out of her face.

"Affectionate pair," the mother said quietly to her husband, sounding amused. The Doctor beamed at her.

"I'm the Doctor and this is Rose," he said, and paused. He turned back to her, his eyes going soft. "Haven't had the chance to say that in a while," he murmured, a laugh in his voice for camouflage. Rose dropped her eyes, her hand going up to smooth out the lapels of his suit. The tone of his voice had put a lump in her throat she hadn't been expecting.

"I am Jukka Tiensuu, my wife Anna, and my son Harald," the middle-aged mountain of a man said, startling Rose. Her thoughts had gone entirely elsewhere. The Doctor's mind had wandered as well, if the way he jumped was any indication. Rose looked up at the family watching them and grinned sheepishly.

"Nice to meet you," she said.

"Oh, yes, fantastic. Brilliant," the Doctor said, stepping back from Rose and rumpling his hair a bit.

"Tourists?" Anna asked, kindly enough.

"Oh, we-" Rose began.

"Travelers," the Doctor said swiftly. "We're just...we just..travel about...But this," he said swiftly, pointing down at the street below and changing the subject with casual skill, "Is a bit out of the ordinary, wouldn't you say?"

"No kidding," said the boy, rolling his eyes. He wasn't nearly as big as his father but the potential was there, in his shoulders and his arms. Rose would guess he was about seventeen, just from his clothes and attitude.

"Thank you, Harry, I'm warming up to it," the Doctor said quickly.

"Nobody calls me-" Harry began, frowning, but the Doctor was on a roll already and wouldn't be stopped.

"There's people in the street, acting like zombies, but are they? Moaning zombies in the movies, fine, that's one thing but sound needs air and air needs breathing and dead creatures," the Doctor said pointedly, "don't breathe. Usually anyway," he added with shotgun swiftness. He spun on the family in front of him, all of whom were looking rather dazed.

"Anything unusual happen recently?" he asked. "Anything fall from the sky, rise up from the earth, explosions, rain of frogs, Elvis sightings?" The Doctor spread his hands.

Anna was actively gaping at him now. Jukka was looking as if he was wondering about the Doctor's sanity. Rose smiled prettily at them.

"He's like this," she said soothingly. "It's best to just go along with him, really."

"Well..." said Harry, and paused when everyone turned to look at him. He shrugged with the beautiful indifference of a teenager. "They did just uncover a new find up at the dig site."

The Doctor's eyes lit up.

"What dig site?" he prompted.

Harry looked at his parents first. His mother raised her eyebrows, looking somewhat bemused.

"You think those people might still be alive?" Harry asked hesitantly.

"They can't be," Jukka said, frowning. The Doctor frowned right back. "Well, you saw them," Jukka said, gesturing with a massive hand at the street below. The Doctor turned from Jukka and approached Harry, the topography of the roof making him move somewhat at an angle.

"Might be," the Doctor said, looking the boy in the eye. He smiled faintly. "We'll have to find out."

Harry swallowed and nodded.

"There's a dig site, just outside of town. Archaeologists and anthropologists," Harry hesitated, and the Doctor nodded encouragingly. "They found something new last week. They were talking about it in the..." he glanced at his parents. "In the library."

From the disbelieving expressions of his parents, that was a somewhat unlikely location for Harry to hang out.

"Harald," Jukka said sternly, "Have you been down to the pub again?"

Harry looked slightly sullen, and said nothing. His mother sighed and put her hand to her head.

"Not that it matters now," she said quietly, and sat down on the slant of the roof. She nodded at the alley below them. "That's most of our friends down there."

Rose sat beside her.

"They might not be dead," she said gently, glancing up at the Doctor. "Yeah?" she asked him.

"Right," the Doctor said. "Of course. Silly assumption to make."

"You're a medical doctor, then?" Jukka asked curiously.

"Among other things," the Doctor said dismissively, shoving his hands in his pockets and looking around. He finally noticed the piles of things the Tiensuu family had brought up to the roof with them and cocked his head, looking surprised. "Did you lot do all this?" he asked, nodding at the supplies. He smiled, as if they'd done a trick. "That was clever."

"Well, who knows how long we'll be up here," Anna said, shrugging.

"Hmm," the Doctor said casually. "Well done."

"There's the hardware store over there," Jukka said, gesturing at the far building, "And a grocery underneath us. We grabbed what we could before those things got inside, and crawled out the attic window onto the roof."

"Didn't you try and call the police?" the Doctor demanded. "Don't tell me no one in this town has a mobile," He pulled a face, as if no one could be so stupid.

Rose cleared her throat delicately, a smile tugging at her lips that didn't reach her eyes. The Doctor's eyes flicked over to her, and his annoyed expression froze on his face.

"Bit rude?" he murmured out of the corner of his mouth, leaning towards her.

"Yeah," Rose said, almost before he'd spoken.

"We did," Anna said hesitantly, as if she was interrupting. Rose and the Doctor turned to her. "Call the police, I mean." The weary-looking mother gazed down at her hands.

"They're right over there," Jukka said roughly, jerking his thumb at the street behind him. Rose looked, and noticed with a sinking sensation that one of the abandoned vehicles was a police car. "We heard some shooting earlier in the afternoon, but nothing for a while now." Jukka's eyes were bleak.

The Doctor stared down the street with that carefully blank look on his face that meant he was angry with himself.

"I'm sorry," he said gently.

"We were just looking for a hotel," Rose offered. She looked down the street to where the building in question stood. "Some people pulled my Mum inside..."

Anna patted her hand and Rose looked up in surprise.

"The Knapps run that place. They'll take good care of her, don't you worry," she said warmly. Harry stepped closer, looking awkward.

"Yeah," he said, blushing a bit. "I'm sure your mother's okay." He smiled at Rose, and sat down. Not too close to her, just close enough to be a surprise.

"Thanks Harry," Rose said, startled. Harry did not seem to mind at all when she called him that, and grinned broadly.

"Right!" the Doctor said, a bit too loudly. Rose smothered a smile. "I'll need to get one of those things close enough to examine it." He held out a hand to Rose and she took it, letting him pull her to her feet with no small amount of amusement. Harry scowled a bit.

"And just how do you think you'll do that?" Jukka asked skeptically.

The Doctor looked at Rose. She raised her eyebrows.

"I'll need some rope," The Doctor said firmly.

* * *

(1)Hurry! (Norwegian)

_Author's Note:_

_Thanks to Doro for the Beta, she is brilliant._

_LaniC- I haven't given up on that story, but I just...ah...have a bit of a thing for David Tennant myself (he doesn't even need tight pants, just geeky glasses and a smile), and after the Finale of series 4...(after I picked myself up off the floor after fainting) I needed to write some Who._


	3. Chapter 3

Teatime of the Living Dead

CH 3

"You've got to put some twist to it...put some twist to the throw," Harry urged. The rope ricocheted off a reaching hand and slithered to the ground.

There was the sound of three voices joined in disappointment. A kind of collective "awwww".

"You didn't twist it-"

"This isn't as easy as it looks," the Doctor muttered, frowning in concentration.

"Maybe if you just give it a bit of a flick," Rose offered, gesturing with one hand as the Doctor tried again. Beside her, the Doctor gave a little sigh of frustration.

"That was closer," she told him, "just try..." Rose leaned over the edge of the building and snagged the dangling rope.

On the ground a small group of about ten of the creatures had gathered, arms reaching up as if they could somehow grab the people on the roof from where they stood. Rose extended her arm and gave the rope a flick. Below them, the loop that the Doctor had tied in the end of the line gave a jump and settled over one of the creatures, clearing one of its (her?) reaching hands and hanging limply off one shoulder.

"Hey, now!" the Doctor said with a stern look, pulling the rope out of Rose's hands. He gave her a once over, his eyes flicking up and then back down again. "You wait your turn," he added, wagging a finger at her. Rose rolled her eyes and the Doctor turned back to his task with a smile playing at his lips. He drew the rope back up, coiling it absently as he gathered slack. He started humming tunelessly. She realized, watching him, that he was just about as happy as she'd ever seen him.

"Right," the Doctor said, leaning over. "Here we go..." He repeated the throw, giving his wrist a little snap. The rope jumped just as it had when she'd done it. Rose leaned forward, her tongue poking through her teeth absently as she watched. With almost surreal ease, the loop of rope flicked over the woman's outstretched hands, catching on her clothes. Rose turned to him in delight and found that he was already staring at her. Well, specifically, staring at her mouth. Rather single-mindedly, in fact. Amused and strangely pleased, Rose raised her eyebrows, inclining her head pointedly toward the woman-thing below.

The Doctor faked a businesslike expression and refocused on his task, jiggling the rope a little to get it to slide down the woman's torso. Then he tugged quickly on the line and the slip knot he had taken care to tie tightened neatly around her waist.

"Yes!" Harry shouted, pumping his fist once.

"Gotcha," the Doctor growled, pleased. He glanced over at Rose, wiggling his eyebrows a bit, looking terribly, adorably proud of himself. Rose ducked her head, grinning like a loon. She could never resist him when he was like this. She lifted her arms and he immediately scooped her up into a hug, swinging her entirely around. Rose laughed out loud, clinging to his shoulders.

"You're mad," Anna said from where she was sitting, straddling the ridgeline of the roof. She shook her head, looking caught between amusement and disbelief. "All three of you."

Harry shot his mother a pleased look, as if he was happy to be included in the Doctor and Rose's company.

The Doctor set her back onto her feet with a reluctant sigh. He held her close for a moment more, as if listening for something. Rose paused for a second and then smiled gently, hearing both of their heartbeats pounding along together.

He jumped suddenly, as if remembering that they did have work to do. The Doctor pulled away from her, untangling the rope that had gotten wrapped around them. Once they were both clear he turned, shouting up at Anna.

"All right to start pulling!"

Anna turned to look at where her husband was waiting on the other side of the roof.

"Go on, Jukka," she called. Obligingly, the rope started to slither up the roof and disappear out of sight. Rose looked down to see the woman-creature slowly begin to lift off the ground, rising toward them. She moaned eerily as she got closer, reaching up for them with more enthusiasm as she neared the roof.

"That's Mrs. Lasaala," Harry said, frowning as he peeked over the edge.

The Doctor hesitated before turning around to regard him carefully.

"Is she a friend of yours?" he asked, the look in his eye deadly serious. Rose had a sudden thought that if he said yes, the Doctor would be perfectly comfortable letting out the rope and trying to snag someone else, no matter how much trouble it had been just to get Mrs. Lasaala. She couldn't help feeling the sudden sharp swell of affection that squeezed tightly around her heart.

"She caught me taking a shortcut through her yard once," Harry explained, the expression on his face somewhat grim. "She threw a bit of wood at my head." He gazed down at the rather ghastly-looking woman with a certain amount of satisfaction on his face.

"Ah," the Doctor said, relaxing a bit. "No worries, then." Rose fought very hard not to snicker. It would be...disrespectful. Disrespectful to the dead. If they were, in fact, dead.

Mrs. Lasaala was getting rather close, and the Doctor held up his hand in a 'stop' motion.

"Hold it just there," he called, and Rose saw Anna turn and shout down to her husband. Mrs. Lasaala's upward motion halted with a jerk. The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver, crouching at the edge of the roof so he could scan her properly.

"Where did you get that?" Rose asked, sitting down beside him. She leaned in, curious. It looked like he'd done quite a few modifications to this one. "That's not the same." This screwdriver had a red bit on the back end, and quite a few extra switches and gizmos.

"No," the Doctor said absently, and then frowned. "I mean yes, it is." He tilted his head as if he was conceding a point. "Well, it will be. In the future." The Doctor glanced over at her. She looked back at him blankly.

He sighed.

"It's the focus of a predestination paradox, actually, and I'd been wondering if I ought to get rid of it, because things like that just tend to cause trouble if you leave them lying about, you know? Can't set it on a table without turning around and finding you've changed the entire history of the donut." He took a breath and relaunched his speech at twice the speed.

"So there I was, in the TARDIS, naked, mind you," he looked up, "Did I mention I was naked? Chilly. Anyway, I had already been captured at that point, so I needed a bit of a gadget to save the day and rescue myself. I thought, if you can't count on yourself to do something, do it yourself! But I didn't have a tool to work with-" he pointed it at her "-the naked bit- so I nicked this one. Kill two problems with one screwdriver." He looked rather proud of himself, beaming at Harry and Rose as if one of them should give him a present.

Rose was silent for a moment. She gestured at the offending instrument.

"So..." she said slowly, "you gave yourself this from the future, and then you stole it from yourself while you weren't looking?" The Doctor grinned at her as if she'd just won a Pulitzer prize.

"And, here we are," he said, pleased.

"Who _are_ you people?" Harry asked, bewildered. The Doctor turned to him with a rather self-satisfied look on his face.

"I said already." He poked a thumb at his chest. "The Doctor," he gestured at Rose, "Rose." He shook his head with a slightly concerned expression, and gave the boy a pat on the shoulder. "Try and keep up."

Harry gave him an incredulous look, and Rose choked on a laugh. The Doctor resumed scanning, frowning slightly in concentration.

"Oh, you are kidding me," he muttered, and fiddled with the settings a bit. "But..." he said it almost fretfully, making a face at his screwdriver as if it had started singing sea chanteys at him. "That doesn't make any sense," he said finally. He sat back and put a hand on his head, rumpling his hair and generally looking quite baffled.

"Are they alive?" Rose prompted.

"Yes, of course, but..." the Doctor answered the question as if it was absolutely inconsequential in the face of whatever-it-was that was stumping him.

Rose beamed at Harry, and he smiled right back at her.

"They're alive!" she crowed, leaning over and hugging him. He blushed brilliantly red, and didn't seem to know where to put his hands, but Rose didn't mind a bit. She thought he was sweet. Anna overheard from where she was sitting and actually squealed, dashing to the other side of the roof and out of sight. A moment later, Mrs. Lasaala fell jerkily about three feet.

"Oi!" the Doctor scolded roughly. "Careful Mrs. Lasaala doesn't break a hip there, Jukka!" he glanced over at Rose in Harry's arms and then got quite interested in his sonic screwdriver, his face very carefully devoid of expression. Harry tried on a smug look, and Rose punched his arm. She went over and sat down again beside the Doctor, bumping him with her shoulder a little as she settled in.

"So they're alive," Rose said, as if nothing had interrupted the conversation. "What's the problem?"

"Well," the Doctor said somewhat importantly, his eyes flicking over to where Harry was sitting, "you see this here?" The Doctor scooted forward until he was nearly hanging off the roof and gestured with the screwdriver at Mrs. Lasaala's reaching hand, which was the closest thing of hers to them at the moment. It was mottled and unpleasant looking.

"The...sort of...greenish bit?" Rose asked hesitantly, interested. She leaned over to peer closer.

"Fungus," the Doctor said thoughtfully. "But nothing from this world. Completely different cellular structure. Very distinctive."

"Outer space fungus?" Rose said with a smile, eying him.

"Yep," the Doctor agreed, and pulled back from the edge of the roof. He sat beside her, elbows on knees. He fiddled idly with his new improved screwdriver, frowning unhappily. "Very outer." The Doctor turned to her, a thoughtful look on his face.

"I went to a planet once where they used a sporulating form similar to this as a method of communication. But that was in an area of space that human beings never reach, and when I say never, I mean never." He made a definitive gesture with one hand.

Rose raised an eyebrow, her lips curling in a smile.

"They talked with fungus?" she asked. The Doctor gave her a warm, fond look, as if he was pleased as punch to be trapped up on a roof with her, talking about plant life.

"They talked with chemicals. Insectoid. The fungus helped alter chemical structures in their brains. Harmless," he said, and then added with a slight frown, "for them. I found it a bit hard to take, actually. I mean the TARDIS translates, that's all well and good, but the whole place smelled like week-old herring." He shook his head mournfully. "I can't even go down to a fish market any more. Someone says, 'Lets go see a bit of fish tossing' and then it's 'Oh, where's the Doctor?' Where _am_ I? I've got my head in a bin, re-visiting my lunch, thank you."

Rose had something of a problem, laughing and trying to look sympathetic at the same time. "That's all right, I'm the same with the blue," Rose said cheerfully, and then paused, brushing a strand of hair out of her face. "What was it? Nutrient mix number nine?"

The Doctor thought for a moment, and then winced in sympathy. "Ah yes, Krop Tor. Well, the planet _was_ called the bitter pill..."

"I'll say. I'm completely off blueberry pie. I can't even look at Blue Moon ice cream anymore," Rose sighed.

"Oh," the Doctor said, as if she'd just kicked a puppy. "Really? Not even a taste? You've got to try a taste. Blue ice cream that tastes like bananas, it's brilliant!"

"Nutmeg, actually," Rose corrected him. It was vaguely comical how completely his face fell.

"Wha-no. No. Nutmeg?" He paused, frowning. "Can't be, I-"

"Sorry to interrupt," Harry said loudly, not sounding sorry at all. Both Rose and the Doctor started a bit, and Rose felt a twinge of guilt for having completely forgotten the boy was even there. The Doctor just looked amused.

"I think you had a point somewhere, right?" Harry prompted, looking a little put out.

"Of course!" the Doctor said, looking insulted. "I _am_ very clever, you know-"

"Right," Rose said quickly, cutting him off, "this fungus, it was sort of...symbiotic, yeah?" she prompted, hauling him back to the point. The Doctor stopped, successfully distracted.

He tilted his head from side to side as if weighing the question.

"More or less," he said, and scratched his head. "But why would it be here? And it's attacking these people's central nervous systems, not augmenting them." The Doctor waggled his screwdriver at the crowd of infected people below them, leaning toward Rose. "That's where we get the moaning and stumbling about. But this type of fungus reproduces by spores, almost constantly. If it's even present that means we're all infected, but in these people, it's so much more advanced..."

Rose stiffened.

"What, all of us?" she asked with an entirely reasonable stab of alarm. The Doctor shook his head dismissively.

"In quantities so small it would take weeks for any symptoms to show up...such as they are, anyway..." He trailed off, and Rose could almost see the gears in his mind turning. After a moment he shook his head with a frustrated sound. Rose reached out and gave his arm a squeeze.

"Biting," said Harry suddenly. Rose and the Doctor both turned to him. Harry lifted his eyebrows. "Biting, yeah? That's why everyone was thinking zombies. They bite you and you turn into one of them."

"Direct exposure into the bloodstream," the Doctor said slowly, then shook his head. "It should still take weeks...and why would they even want to bite? I'm missing something." He had a rather petulant and endearing look on his face, and Rose sharply smothered the urge to kiss him on the nose.

"Can you get it out of them?" Rose asked instead. The Doctor stopped, surprised.

"Oh," he said. "Sure, no problem. A little anti-fungal concoction, just need a quick stop at the chemists." He smiled almost innocently.

Harry started grinning like a little kid.

Rose shook her head and let out a breath of laughter, relaxing all at once. He might've said, and saved everyone some worry...but then again he was the Doctor, so she should know better. Rose hesitated, startled by her own thoughts. The Doctor. She looked at him, studied him closely, trying to listen to what her gut was telling her. He certainly seemed to be...maybe not _exactly_ the Doctor, but close enough. So close, in fact, that she was having a difficult time deciding whether there was enough difference to matter.

_All I did was change._

The Doctor pointed across the street with one finger, drawing Rose's attention.

"Getting there, however, might be a bit of a trick," he mused. Rose turned her eyes to where he was pointing. It was a nondescript-looking shop with a sign in front that said 'Apotek', which Rose could only assume meant 'Chemist's'. There was a long, open stretch of road they would need to cross if they wanted to get inside. As Rose watched, several of the infected stumbled out of an the alleyway just next to the Chemist's and started heading toward the building the three of them were currently on top of.

"Harry," the Doctor said thoughtfully, "I'm going to need your help."

Fifteen minutes later, Rose was hanging from a rope ladder over the edge of the building, listening to the Tiensuu family kick up a racket on the other side. She and the Doctor were waiting, as the noise drew out more and more of the creatures from hiding. Harry and the others had instructions to keep the horde interested long enough for them to dash across the street and start working on an antidote. Though, strictly speaking, Rose assumed that once they'd got there, it would be the Doctor working on the antidote. She'd be holding the light and providing moral support, most likely.

"All right, looks good," the Doctor said quietly from below her. Rose checked. There was a lot of moaning from the infected and banging about from the Tiensuu family on the far side of the other building, but the street itself was relatively quiet. The Doctor scrambled silently down the rope ladder, but paused when he got his feet on the ground, craning his neck to see what was keeping her. He gazed up at her like something out of Romeo and Juliet.

A rose by any other name, Rose thought with a twinge of sadness, and descended after him. Shakespeare had nothing on her life.

The Doctor reached out for her when she stepped off the ladder, and she gave him her hand without a thought. He was watching her with that soft look in his eye and a smile on his face, not paying attention to where he was walking, until he stepped right into a puddle of something. It immediately soaked his trainer, and he made a little 'tssk' sound. He lifted his foot, shaking it and hopping in place. The sight snagged at Rose's memory.

_Do you remember hopping? Hopping for our lives?_

Rose went quite still. She remembered very well. He's been much broader then, not much hair and a daft old grin. It was funny, but all at once she missed him. She missed him so much that she could barely breathe.

He'd know what to do, she thought. He'd stand there in his beat up leather jacket, looking at this man who was the Doctor but couldn't be, and then he'd give her a smile and say just the right thing...It was a mad thing to think, she _knew _that. He couldn't stand there looking at this Doctor because he'd become this Doctor (sort of). Rose got that, she understood that, but...

For a minute, standing in that alley, her heart gave a little wail in her chest, and the Doctor that was currently in front of her stiffened as if he could hear it. Their arms stretched out as Rose stopped, and they lost their grip on each other. The Doctor looked back at her bleakly, as if his doom was about to descend on his head.

She could see it so clearly. Sometimes she could, ever since the Doctor had got the wolf out of her, so to speak. The whole long chain of events that had led her here. The Doctor that had taken her hand and told her to run had become someone different, and that was okay, or, it had become okay. There'd been enough of him that was the same for her to be all right with it, even with all the things that were so different. The choices they had made, both of them, had led her to this Doctor. Just a bit different from the one she'd gotten used to. Rougher. And she had just run with it, as she always did, without thinking, as she always did.

Rose would have to ask herself eventually, just how different could he get and have it still be okay? For the moment, she shied away from the question.

The Doctor was looking at her as if he was a little frightened of her, and he glanced out at the street with almost palpable anxiety. As if he was desperate for some crisis, for something to distract her...

"Rose, we have to go," he said, almost dancing in place. "The street's clear, we..." he met her eyes, and whatever he saw in them made him lose his train of thought for a second. He blinked and swallowed hard. "We have to go," he insisted, and held his hand out to her again, almost hesitantly.

Rose nodded once, and put her hand in his, and they were off again. Running.

The Doctor had his screwdriver out and the door unlocked before they were halfway across the road. He opened it slowly, and Rose flinched when there was a cheerful little jingle from inside. She whipped her head around to check the street. Still looked safe. The Doctor carefully eased his arm up and inside, grabbing onto the little bell above the door to keep it from ringing. Good thing he was tall, Rose thought as she followed him inside. She wouldn't have been able to reach it herself.

It was dark inside. Rose shut the door behind her with a click and the Doctor moved out ahead of her into the shop, his screwdriver held loosely in one hand. He held the other arm behind him, giving Rose a very clear 'wait here' gesture. She ignored him, reaching out for one of the displays and unhooking part of a metal rack. She had it disassembled in less than five seconds, scattering shoe inserts on the floor. Shop girl extraordinaire, she thought with amusement. Rose raised the metal rod she'd freed like a baseball bat, following him inside.

The front of the Chemist's looked deserted, and there was nothing lurking behind the counter, though Rose acted on a hunch and found a torch in the drawer by the register. Some things were universal in little shops...

She moved up close behind the Doctor, shining the torch light over his shoulder into the back room. It was filled, floor to ceiling, with racks and racks of medications. There were several long stainless steel counters with odd little machines and boxes of rubber gloves. No monsters, though Rose could see a door at the back that probably led to a hallway and the stairs and who knew what else.

The Doctor relaxed, stepping away from Rose and dropping that fierce protectiveness he sometimes showed in scary situations as easily as if he was kicking off a pair of trainers.

"Now," he said, sounding pleased, "this is more like it." He took a stroll around the room, running a finger along the edge of something that looked like a posh, high-tech scale. He looked like a mechanic stroking the chrome bumper of a classic car. He darted around the shelves, picking out bottles and packages seemingly at random, then dumping them all out on the counter. He surveyed his spoils for a moment, scratching his head.

"Rose," he said absently, "bring that light over here, will you?"

Rose stayed by the door, her mind restlessly picking at her own doubts. She could have bet money he would say just that. Her Doctor would have. He seemed the same. He seemed that way, but was he?

The Doctor saw that she wasn't moving, and picked up a package, pretending to read it and nearly dropping it in the process.

"Do you...do you want me to go?" he asked softly, startling her.

Mind reader, that one...

It was so odd, she thought with a jolt. Any other time he would have asked her if she wanted to go home. But this was home for her. He was the one who was lost, she realized with a pang, and all he could do was offer to do the leaving.

"What?" Rose said slowly, even though she'd heard him perfectly well. The Doctor gave up on the package and it fell from his fingers, bouncing onto the floor. He took a step toward her, his eyes huge and black in the dim light. He shoved his hands in his pockets rather awkwardly.

"I could go. If you want," he replied, dropping his eyes and looking closely at his shoes. "I mean," he added with a one-shoulder shrug, "after I...after we...with the zombie things. After we get it sorted." He raised his head, searching her face as if she held all his hope. "Do you want me to go?"

"No," Rose said sharply. The word shot out of her heart, bypassing her brain entirely. She had a sudden unpleasant thought, and was abruptly scared witless. "Do you want to go?"

"No," the Doctor said, almost before she'd finished asking. Rose sighed, her tension easing. The Doctor looked pretty thoroughly relieved himself.

"So," Rose said, faking casual and picking at an imaginary spot on the arm of her coat, "we all right?"

The Doctor stepped close to her, his dark eyes shining.

"It's still me, Rose," he said softly. The Doctor had a way of looking at her sometimes like she filled up the whole world in front of him. It usually happened after she'd done something extremely clever, or wildly dangerous, and he was doing it now.

Rose met his eyes and gave him a wan smile.

"But the Doctor wouldn't have asked me that," she said, brushing her hair behind her ear. The Doctor in front of her wilted a little at her words, so she pushed on in a hurry. "'Do you want me to go', he wouldn't have asked me that. He would've asked me if _I_ wanted to go home." Rose reached out and tentatively put a hand on the Doctor's chest. "But you can't," she said sadly. She flicked her eyes up. "You're stuck here." Rose bit her lip unhappily.

The Doctor blinked at her for a moment, and then got the oddest expression on his face. It was rather like someone had lit him up from the inside out. He reached out and took her shoulders.

"Stuck with you," he said quietly, distinctly. "That's not so bad."

Rose lifted her head, surprised and touched that he had thrown her own words back at her. Slowly, she stared to smile.

"Yeah?" she asked softly, pleased. She took a step forward, leaning playfully against his chest.

"Yeah," the Doctor replied, his eyes bright with a grin that hadn't made it to his lips yet. He looked happy, Rose thought, and something inside her relaxed. Then he lowered his eyes, and Rose realized with a funny little jolt that he was staring at her mouth.

She just had time enough to notice. Then the Doctor darted forward, and kissed her.

* * *

_Author's Note:_

_violetmadme- thank you (blush)_

_Girlnorth- Yes, the probability of a dull life, chips and traffic jams and all that seems pretty low if any incarnation of the Doctor is involved. The possibility of any particular place being blown to hell increases exponentially the closer the Doctor gets to it. It's a very complex mathematical formula._

_Also, for those who don't know, A Chemist's shop is a drugstore in Britain._


End file.
